


Hermione Granger and the Exceptionally Good Birthday

by ap_aelfwine



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Clever House Elves, F/M, Hermione's birthday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-05
Updated: 2013-10-05
Packaged: 2017-12-28 11:37:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/991580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ap_aelfwine/pseuds/ap_aelfwine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fourth Year AU.<br/>Harry meets Hermione's study group, Hermione learns the truth about House Elves, Ron learns the truth about Lavender, Hermione's birthday is celebrated, and a good time is had by all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hermione Granger and the Exceptionally Good Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> Fourth Year AU Warning. Luna Being Luna Warning. Friendly Millicent Warning. Supportive Ginny Warning. Handy Susan Warning. Fannish Hermione Warning. Yours Truly Warning.  
> Harry/Hermione, with slight hints of possible future Harry/Hermione/other girls. Ron/Lavender. Dobby/Winky.  
> ***  
> The characters and situations of the Harry Potter series are copyright J.K. Rowling. They may not be used or reproduced commercially without permission. The use of these characters and situations is not to be construed as challenge to said copyright. They are merely borrowed for this work of non-commercial fanfiction, from which the author derives no financial benefit.  
> ***  
> So, this is the Hermione's birthday fic that I unfortunately didn't think of until it was already Hermione's birthday. And then it took me a fortnight to write it. Oh well.  
> ***  
> Many thanks to my good friend W. Suika Roberts for helpful advice with regards to the fittings of Dobby's biker jacket.

"I still can't believe they've cancelled Quidditch, Harry. Tri-Wizard Tournament or no Tri-Wizard Tournament, don't they realise it's the most important thing we do? I mean, if they had to cancel something, why not Potions class?"

Hermione, sitting in a chair to Harry's left with a book in her lap, rolled her eyes. Harry rolled his eyes, then hastily glanced at Ron, who was concentrating on the chessboard and wouldn't have noticed if Harry had just grown horns and wings, at least as long as he didn't fly away before Ron got him in checkmate. He flicked his gaze back to Hermione. The two friends shared a little smile and a wink.

It was nearly the third week of school. Something was nagging at Harry's mind. Wasn't there something significant coming up? Not a test or a paper due, but a date that meant something. He glanced up at Hermione again. The afternoon sunlight was slanting through the window, giving her skin the colour of old ivory and making her hair shine like polished brown oak. She had little freckles round the corner of one eye and a mole on her cheekbone. It was funny how one could know somebody for years and still be noticing something like that, wasn't it?

And that was it. Hermione's birthday was on the nineteenth. He should do something more this year than simply wishing her a happy birthday in the morning and making a card out of parchment. Perhaps he could owl order a gift for her? He wasn't sure if there were any books he'd ever heard of that Hermione hadn't read already, but a quill case or a nice brass bookmark or a box of sweets might go over well. Especially if he could think of a kind of sweet that Ron didn't particularly like, so Hermione wouldn't have half of them eaten by somebody else ten minutes after she'd opened the box.

It was at that very moment that a little piece of paper, folded into the shape of a cat, came climbing up his leg. Paper was unusual in the Wizarding world, and folded bits of it that moved on their own were even more so. _That's called origami, or something like, isn't it? Or at least the Muggle version is._

The little cat stretched out on his thigh and showed him the message written on its belly. "Potter--Please meet us in the Library at a quarter past five, at the third table from the north window. Come alone. This concerns matters of critical import. Consider this a gathering under Right of Parley." The person who'd written it put little hearts over her i's, much as Lavender did, but other than that their handwriting had nothing in common with Lavender's, being larger and not as loopy. The mysterious person had also sketched a little smiling face after the bit about Right of Parley, which was something Harry only had heard of because Hermione had lent him a novel about his own ancestor Hathorne Potter who'd ridden with the Royalist cavalry during the first battles of the Civil War before he almost single-handedly negotiated the compromises that took away all Wizarding support for the Parliamentarian cause.

Harry assumed that the smile meant he shouldn't take the invocation of Parley with complete seriousness, which was good because in the book characters always began Parley by stacking their swords and pistols together before they crossed their wands and vowed to do each other no harm for the duration of the meeting. It was a nice image, but Harry didn't think the Headmaster would let him borrow the Sword of Gryffindor for a meeting in the Library.

"Checkmate! Good game, Harry, but you really should've been paying more attention towards the end there. You missed a chance to castle, and with that done you could've taken out my bishop, and then it would've been at least another five moves before I could get you in mate."

"Thanks, Ron. Listen, I just realised I need to check something out in the Library before dinner."

"It's not even three weeks into term, Harry, and we've nothing due tomorrow. Surely it can wait?"

Hermione rolled her eyes again. "I'd be tempted to join you, Harry, but I do need to finish this reading for Runes. See you at dinner?"

"That's fine, Hermione, thanks. I'll see you there."

Ron immediately began trying to convince Dean to play a game with him, despite the fact that Dean was clearly busy with his Care of Magical Creatures homework. Harry picked up his satchel and headed out.

A few yards down the corridor, he realised somebody was walking with him. "Hello, Ginny."

She smiled at him. He still didn't feel that he knew Ron's younger sister very well, but at least she'd stopped squeaking and not meeting his eyes. "Hey, Harry. Headed for the Library?"

"Yes. You?" He was tempted to ask if she knew anything about the mysterious note, but there wasn't any point in it. If she knew, he'd find out. If she didn't, she might tell Ron, and then Ron would have a fit about evil slimy Slytherins trying to lure Harry into a trap, which was daft because there were any number of better places to trap somebody than on their way to the Library on an afternoon when there were plenty of people in the corridors.

"Yes. My study group have a meeting before dinner."

They walked together in silence for most of the way, until at the bottom of the last staircase they met with a small blonde girl wearing a Ravenclaw tie. Harry had seen her once or twice before. He thought she was in Ginny's year. "Greetings and salutations, Ginevra. And to you as well, Ginevra's companion to whom I've not been introduced yet, although of course I recognise you. You're Hermione Granger's best friend, aren't you?" Harry nodded. He didn't know what else he could do.

"Hey, Luna! Harry, this is my friend and neighbour, Luna Lovegood. And Luna, this is Harry Potter."

"Hello, Luna. Pleased to meet you." Harry held out his hand, not knowing what else to do.

"Hello, Harry Potter. It's very good to meet you, and I do think you're much more appealing in person than you are in the Boy Who Lived books. Not that the books don't have a certain amount of charm, of course--Ginevra and I used to have wonderful times together reading them."

Ginny was blushing. Harry felt a bit sorry for her embarrassment, although he did notice that she was smiling rather wistfully, the way that Hermione would smile when she talked about places she'd gone to on holiday with her parents. Or at least the way she would smile until Ron said it was completely mad that Muggles did things like sitting on the sand by the sea until they were almost burnt, not to mention the whole business of travelling inside big metal flying things instead of having Portkeys, or alternately that French people had to be utterly mental because they ate bits of flaky crescent-shaped bread for breakfast instead of bacon and eggs.

"Oh, Ginevra... did I embarrass you?"

"It's fine, Luna."

"Still, I'm sorry." She threw her arms about Ginny and hugged her tight. It looked a very nice hug. Harry wouldn't have minded being hugged that way, himself. Of course, he wasn't exactly a connoisseur of hugs, having only ever been hugged by Hermione and Mrs. Weasley, except for his Godfather's back-pounding manly hugs, which probably didn't count. Of course, Mrs. Weasley's affectionate smothering might not have counted, either, once it was put that way.

"It's all right, Luna, really." Ginny patted her friend on the back. Finally Luna released her.

"And I'm sorry, Harry. I shouldn't have talked about those silly books in front of you." Harry was worried that Luna might cry. He really didn't know what to do with crying girls. He might've been able to guess what Hermione would need, of course, but he didn't know Luna at all. And aside from the awkwardness, he didn't want to see the little Ravenclaw unhappy. He knew next to nothing about her, of course, but somehow he knew he didn't want her to be upset, even beyond the usual way that he didn't enjoy seeing anyone sad or disappointed, except maybe for Draco or Snape.

"It's okay, Luna."

"Thank you, Harry, but still, I should have thought about your feelings. May I hug you?"

"Err, well, you don't have to..."

"As you wish, but it _is_ a traditional method of apologising."

"I wouldn't want you to feel forced."

"But I wouldn't. I'd feel honoured and delighted and all sorts of fine and pleasant things along those lines." She reached out, and before Harry knew it he was being hugged by Luna, and hugging her in return.

"Thank you, Luna." It didn't seem adequate, but it seemed as if he should say something once they'd let each other go, and that was the only thing he could think of saying.

"Thank you, Harry."

He glanced at his watch. It was almost ten past five. "I'm sorry, but I'm meeting somebody in the Library in a few minutes. It was good to meet you, Luna. Thanks for walking with me, Ginny. I'll see you both soon."

He reached the table just barely in time. There was nobody there. He wondered if the mysterious people he was supposed to meet were running even later than he was. He'd rather think that than wonder whether this was all some particularly obnoxious sort of prank.

Not wanting to stand around looking confused, he sat down at the table, in a chair that gave him a good view of anyone who might be coming into the library.

As soon as he sat down, a note appeared before him. “Good man, Potter. Please join us under Parley in the northwest corner of the stacks, behind the second shelf housing books on magical creatures.”

This was getting ridiculous. The only positive was that everyone knew Madam Pince would never tolerate spellfire in the Library. She had an ability to detect misuse of magic that would put an Auror to shame, and everyone above First Year remembered the duelling exhibition she'd put on with Professor Flitwick, in particular her fiendish application of spells meant for bookbinding and manuscript repair. Besides, neither Draco nor his pair of bodyguards were clever enough to think of a scheme this complicated.

With that in mind, Harry got up and headed into the stacks. When he reached the designated meeting point, no one was there. This was getting to be a bit much. Despite Madam Pince's vigilance, he unobtrusively slipped his wand into his hand as he looked about for another note.

“Harry?”

He almost leapt into the air. If he'd not recognised the voice, he might have sworn. “Ginny?” Why was her voice coming from a bookshelf?

“Come you in here, and quickly.” Her hand reached out to grasp his, and much to his surprise he found himself walking through five shelves of illusory books.

“I could have sworn that some of the books Hermione and I used last year for Buckbeak's hearing were shelved right there,” was all he could think to say.

“That might be because they are shelved there, Harry,” Luna said. “Assuming, of course, that my surmise as to what books those would be is correct. I do find it hard to believe that Hermione Granger would use Hugh Gabbet-Fairfax's _Season with the Smilodon_ and _Truffles, Turnips, Tribbles, and Me_ to defend a Hippogriff. Not to say that either one might not have been useful, I have to say in hindsight. She's even more of a genius than she is gorgeous, and that's saying something, but she doesn't always understand that when working with Wizarding law one sometimes has to think backwards and sideways.”

“No, we didn't use either of those. But we did read Blackmore's _Feathered Quadrupeds and the Principles of Autonomy_ , and I just saw Ginny's hand come out of the spine of it.”

“The shelf retracts into the floor when somebody needs to come through, but an illusion remains to keep the door hidden. There's also a distraction charm—if you'd been looking for one of those books, you'd have realised that you needed another book from another stack much more urgently.”

Harry looked about. He saw that he, Ginny, and Luna were standing in a pleasant little study room, with comfortable chairs, a couch, and a round table. There was even a teapot and a set of mugs. “Oh. Actually, I'm amazed Hermione doesn't know about this place, with all the time she spends in the library.”

Luna smiled. “Believe me, Harry, she does. But you have to understand that it's forbidden for a member of the study group to bring a boy here solely because of her own personal interests. Although do I think that rule was actually established to prevent girls bringing their boyfriends here for sexual activity.”

Harry was glad he wasn't drinking anything, because he suspected it would have come out his nose or at least gone down the wrong way if he had been. He didn't even know what to say. Ginny looked equally uncomfortable. “Um, Luna...” she said.

“Well, I can see why they would do, if it weren't for that rule, since after all it is much more comfortable and spacious than a broom closet, but I also don't see why it wouldn't be just fine to bring a boy here to work on something, especially one as nice as you, Harry. That said, you know how conscientious our Hermione is. She would see researching how to save Hagrid's Hippogriff in the company of her handsome best friend as a 'personal interest.' I tried to tell her it would be perfectly appropriate, but she wouldn't listen. In fact, she got all embarrassed about it.”

“Oh.” Harry was saved from having to say anything more than that when Susan Bones from Hufflepuff came through the portal.

“Sorry I'm late! One of the Firsties was having trouble getting her chisels and her drawknife as sharp as they need to be, and it took me longer to help her than I thought it would.” She was a wholesome-looking girl with a round face and strawberry-coloured plaits. Harry'd had classes with her as long as he'd been at Hogwarts, but he really hadn't ever got to know her well, although he did remember how in Second Year he'd overheard her talking with her housemates and arguing that he couldn't be the Heir of Slytherin.

“No problem, Susan. We were just chatting with Harry.”

Susan squeaked, almost the way Ginny had done in Harry's first days at the Burrow in the summer before Second Year. “Oh. Err, hi, Harry. Good to, err, to see you again and all of that.”

“Hi, Susan.” They'd seen each other in Transfiguration class that morning, but Harry didn't reckon it was necessary to remind her.

Luna fished something out of her robes that looked like a pocket watch, although when she opened it Harry saw a miniature Stonehenge in place of a face and hands. He wasn't sure what good that would do for telling time, but it must have been some use for doing something, because Luna said “Excellent. The fifth member of our party for today's conference will be joining us momentarily, and then we will be able to sit down and explain to our honoured guest just why we've asked him here to spend time in our company. And don't worry, Harry, we didn't ask you to come here for sex, although it does occur to me that it wouldn't be strictly _personal_ interest if all of us were involved...”

Ginny sighed, rolled her eyes, and hugged Luna round the shoulders, mouthing “Sorry, Harry.”

Susan, on the other hand, burst out laughing. After a moment, however, she got an embarrassed look on her face. “Err, sorry, Harry.” She tried to meet his eyes, but couldn't seem to manage it.

“It's okay, Susan.”

“What's okay?” Someone else had come through the portal. Harry turned and saw one of the last people he would've expected to see here: Millicent Bulstrode.

“Oh... nothing, Millie,” Susan said.

Millicent raised an eyebrow. Harry really didn't know what to say. The most significant memory he had of her was from Second Year's abortive duelling club meeting, when she'd put Hermione in a headlock. She wasn't one of Malfoy's regular sycophants and hangers-on, but he still would've made sure his wand was ready if he'd found himself alone in a corridor with her.

She was over six foot tall, and had a nose like an owl's beak and a chin that might've been called 'ruggedly handsome' on a man. Some of the other Gryffindor boys called her “Bull's Arse,” and one time when they were talking in the dormitory after lights out Ron had said Millicent was so fat she outweighed everybody at Hogwarts other than Hagrid and the Giant Squid. Séamus had replied that if any of them should ever have sex with her said brave bloke ought to write up the story afterwards and send it not to Penthouse Forum but to _Without Fear or Hesitation: the Magazine of Wizardly Exploits Against Wild Beasts and the Perils of Nature._ Harry didn't like it when his housemates said things like that, as between Malfoy and Dudley he'd been on the wrong end of too many nasty jokes himself, but it certainly wasn't because of any fondness for Millicent.

“Hello, Potter. I don't suppose we've ever met under friendly circumstances, so what say we pretend we're only just meeting for the first time? I'm Millicent Bulstrode. Pleased to meet you. And would you please call me Millicent?” She held out her hand, and he took it.

“I'm Harry Potter. It's good to meet you, Millicent. And please call me Harry.” Millicent had a firm grip, but she didn't try to crush his hand. She wasn't fat at all, he realised, only tall and rather muscular. He suspected she did indeed outweigh him by a few pounds, but she was also nearly a head taller, so it was only natural that she would. It was true that she'd been a bit plump at their Sorting, but that had probably been because her body was getting ready for a growth spurt; he seemed to recall that she'd grown almost six inches over the course of their First Year. Some of the boys who made fun of her had got heavy and then shot up during First and Second Year as well. Ron was one of them, in fact.

“So, you're Hermione Granger's best friend, right? I'm glad you're—”

Luna cleared her throat. “Wait, Millicent. Should we not sit down before we get round to business?”

To Harry's surprise, Millicent cast down her gaze, looking slightly embarrassed. “Sorry, Luna. I suppose I'm too used to the way my Daddy does things. People say all sorts of nasty things about Hippogriff and horse dealers, so he's always made a point of being very upfront and never beating round the bush.”

“But there aren't any bushes to beat round in this room, are there?” Luna looked about, as if she were making quite sure. “At least I don't see them—I suppose it's possible that you might be able to see some sort of plant life that I can't make out? After all, there are creatures I can see that other people can't, so it would make sense that there would be things with which it was the other way round.”

“It's a figure of speech, dear Luna,” Ginny said.

“Oh, right, one of _those_. In any case, friend Millicent, you've no cause for being sorry. Your straightforwardness is but one of your many charming features and characteristics.”

“Thanks, Luna.”

“So,” Susan said, “since everyone's here who's been asked to be here, how about we all sit down?” There were five chairs, Harry realised. He wondered which one Hermione sat in, since she was apparently another member of this study group. For that matter, why had the other girls asked him to come here and meet them without Hermione?

“Why don't you sit here, Harry?” Luna said, pointing to the chair beside her. Ginny took the one on his other side. He hoped Susan and Millicent weren't offended that he was sitting between the two girls he knew best, but neither seemed to mind. Susan poured out the tea and handed round the mugs, and a few minutes were taken up with adding milk and sugar.

“So, Harry, no doubt you're wondering why we've asked you here to talk with us,” Millicent said.

“I have to confess I did wonder why Parley was being invoked.”

Millicent blushed and began to play with the end of her long thick black plait. “Err, well...”

“It's because dear Millicent has a charming taste for historical fiction. Not to mention her handwriting's very nice and she has a knack for making and animating those cute little paper animals. I can do something similar in wood, but paper's always been beyond me, I'm afraid, which is probably rather silly because paper's made of wood, but there you have it.”

"In any case," Susan said, "we've asked you to join us because of a significant upcoming date. Namely, your best friend's birthday."

He wasn't sure what to say. All this simply to remind him of Hermione's birthday? Then again, he'd not done enough for her in the past. First Year he had the excuse of them not being really friends yet, not that it was much of an excuse, because she'd clearly wanted to be friends from the first moment they met and so had he, and Second Year he'd only found out about it on the morning of the day itself. But last year he really should have done something more than make a simple card at the last minute. Sure, it was more than Ron had done, but still...

Luna broke in on his train of thought. "We think our illustrious Hermione deserves a better birthday celebration than she's had in her previous years at Hogwarts, and we think her very best friend should be a part of that. So, we decided to bring you here, because taking care of the brightest witch in Gryffindor isn't a personal interest, but in fact is in the best interests of all of us."

"I owe Hermione nearly as much as I owe _you_ , Harry. Besides that, I... that is, I like her tremendously. She's almost like the big sister I always wished I had before I came to Hogwarts. Really, that's how I think of her."

Luna squeezed Ginny's hand. "Personally I think having a Hermione is even better than having a big sister. I'm sure sisters are very nice, but Hermiones are adorable and stunning and desirable in addition to being very nice. And they look especially pretty when they're with their Harry Potters and their auras are glowing and all of that. Besides, there are so many things that I don't believe one should really think about doing with a sister, like... well, I'm sure you get the picture."

Harry wasn't at all sure he did, but he didn't much want to say so. After all, he had feeling that the explanation would lead to Susan, Millicent, and Ginny being even pinker than they already were, and although it was sort of a becoming colour he didn't want them to feel any more awkward than they already felt.

"In any case," Millicent said, "we all agree that our Hermione deserves to have a proper birthday. Well, that's already been said, hasn't it? And the important thing is that a proper birthday by definition means the participation of her very handsome best and dearest friend in the celebration of that birthday. And I'm sorry, Luna's said that already as well, hasn't she?"

Luna patted the tall girl's hand. "It's all right, Millicent. I should remember to be more careful when talking about things like how fetching our dear friend is, especially in the presence of her nearest and kindest and handsomest male friend. I'm sorry for rattling you."

"Thank you, Luna. It's all right."

"So, Harry, would you help us, please? Pretty please?" Susan's eyes had somehow got bigger than they normally were. He wondered if there was a spell she'd used to do that, or if this was some exotic power that Susan simply had. They were very blue.

"Of course I will. It's for Hermione."

"Susan," Millicent said, "you didn't need to use that puppy eyes technique. Did you really think Harry wouldn't agree?"

Susan giggled. "Oh, I know, but it's so much fun. And you know I don't get to use it very often. I've never had a chance to try it on a boy before, and it mostly makes girls giggle. Well, at least it makes you lot and Hannah giggle. I've not really dared to show it to anybody else, at least not since that strange American girl in Fortescue's saw me practising it on Tonks--she was the Seventh Year Hufflepuff prefect in our First Year, Harry, and she's brilliant--in the summer after Second Year and started hugging me, which might've been nice if I'd known who she was and if she'd not been squeezing quite so hard, and screaming at the top of her lungs that I was 'cow eye-ey,' whatever that means, and she wanted to take me home with her and keep me."

"Really?" Ginny said. "I don't think I've heard this story before."

Susan blushed. "Well, I didn't want to talk about it too much. Tonks stunned her, and about ninety seconds later one of her family's House Elves came round to collect her. The Elf apologised profusely; I'm certain I've never seen one of them so mortified before or since. She said that 'the young Mistress' had drunk some sort of experimental language potion made from Japanese comic books in preparation for the Salem Witches' Academy exchange programme with the Kyoto Institute for Magical Studies and the dosage had been a bit too strong. I'm glad Tonks dealt with it rather than one of the other Aurors, because they can be a bit too protective. The poor silly mad girl didn't mean any harm, after all, and it wasn't even her fault, really. It would've been a pity for her to be turned into a hamster and sold in a pet shop, not to mention terribly awkward when she transformed back the next day."

"Actually, I think I'd call that a reasonably appropriate, if not in fact an altogether condign punishment, myself," Luna said. "It's true that you're terribly adorable, with or without puppy dog eyes, and I can't blame anybody for thinking it would be fun to carry you off and play with you, but I do think it's more than a bit rude to propose making a pet of somebody without even being introduced, let alone setting parameters for the scene and establishing a safety word."

Harry didn't know what that last meant, but from the other girls' expressions he felt certain he didn't want to hear an explanation right now. He wondered if he could or should ask Hermione sometime when they were alone together. But he did know what he should say at the present moment. "All right, I'm in. What shall we do? I'm afraid I don't know very much about birthdays, since my relatives didn't... well, they didn't go in much for celebrating my... that is, anybody's birthdays." Susan's eyes narrowed slightly, as if she might have caught his slip, but she didn't say anything and thankfully none of the rest seemed to have taken any notice. "I was thinking about getting her something by owl order, a bookmark or a quill case maybe, because I'm pretty sure I couldn't find any books that she's not already read. Well, at least not ones she'd like to read... I'm pretty sure she's not read some of the books the boys pass round."

"Oh, I think you might be surprised at just what our Hermione might havefor her bedtime reading, Harry," Susan said. "And did it never occur to you that we girls might pass books round as well?"

“Err... I suppose it would make sense that you would, although I've never really thought about what books they might be.”

“Oh, we have some simply lovely ones, Harry. Hermione introduced us all to this wonderful series about an alien witch who's captain of a renegade space battlecruiser. She says it's sort of a Wizarding copy of a Muggle moving picture show called Space Trek, or something like that, but she also says it's all right that it's a copy because the authors have madeconsiderably better use of the setting and the characters than the Muggles did. Apparently the Muggles sort of dumped the character who's like Captain Reiana t'Meithan, which I think was a terrible mistake because she's absolutely brilliant. She has the most incredible adventures with her half-human enemy-turned-lover and her loyal sister-officers, although of course some of the things they do aren't quite sisterly... I think you'd like them, and I hope Hermione lends them to you soon.”

“Our Hermione can be a little shy that way,” Ginny said, “but I do have hopes that maybe she'll become a bit less shy soon, assuming all goes well with her birthday.”

“And how could it not go well, now that her handsome best friend is involved?” Susan said.

“Well, I still don't know what we're meant to do. I'm sure I can work out something to get her for a gift, but isn't there meant to be a party? Every party I've ever seen at Hogwarts has been in the Gryffindor Common Room, but I don't think the Prefects would let me bring all of you in there and I'm sure she'll want to have her friends with her...”

“There are plenty of empty classrooms we could use,” Millicent said. “I'm friendly with some of the House Elves, and I'm sure they'd help out. My mum taught me to get them chocolate as a thank you for doing extra work in situations like this. How about if we all go in together to buy them five pounds of Honeydukes' Dark?”

Luna steepled her fingers and gazed at Harry through the space between them. “For that matter, Harry, you'd do well to ask that charmingly eccentric House Elf who likes you so much. Dobby, isn't that his name? I think he'd be pleased to join your household as soon as you've established one, and I'm sure he'd see your and our very dear friend Hermione as a member of that household. Just you be careful with what you ask him to do, please? A friend of my daddy's asked a House Elf to help him put together a nice romantic holiday for himself and his girlfriend to go on after their last day at Hogwarts, and before he knew what was happening he found himself dressed up as a pirate captain with his girlfriend as his first mate and his girlfriend's two favourite dorm-mates in ornamental chains and nothing much else as a captive princess and her maid. They must have enjoyed it in the end, because they stayed out on the ocean for the rest of the summer and they're all happily married and running a Sasquatch refuge in America now, but it does sound as if it was a bit of a shock."

"I... I'll hold that in mind, Luna."

"I'm glad to hear you say so, Harry. As much fun as it might be to find myself on a ship in the Caribbean with you and Hermione someday, I'd like to finish my Runes project first."

"We can talk about that sort of thing later," Ginny said. "But for now, it's nearly dinner time. What say we meet up tomorrow to make more birthday plans?"

"I've written down some ideas that we thought of yesterday," Susan said, handing Harry a sheaf of parchment. "Would you mind reading them over tonight?"

"I will. Thank you, Susan."

The next few days were a blur of activity for Harry. There were catalogues to read, invitations to write, meetings with the girls, and meetings with the House Elves. Not to mention homework to be done; after all, Hermione wouldn't have a happy birthday if Harry fell behind in his classes as a result of him arranging her party. Ron complained that he was becoming just as hopeless a swot as Hermione, which made Harry wonder if his first friend even belonged on the guest list. Not that Harry cared if Ron insulted him--after all, slagging each other was just a thing blokes were meant to do--but using a comparison to _Hermione_ as if it were an insult, even a joking not quite serious one, was beyond the pale.

 

#

 

Hermione Granger was feeling concerned for her best friend. Harry seemed to be running off on mysterious errands during almost all of the time that he wasn't either in class or doing homework. She supposed she was pleased with the fact that he was actually staying on top of his assignments, but the out of characterness bothered her. She couldn't detect any signs of him being under the influence of mind control potions, and he'd shown himself highly resistant to the Imperius curse, but was it possible that someone was manipulating him into doing... something?

It wasn't that she particularly feared he might have a secret girlfriend in some other House. Hermione knew it would happen someday, but surely Harry would tell her about it. She knew full well she hadn't any chance with him at the present time, of course.

She was only his best friend, and she was told boys their age didn't want to date their friends, and she was all right with that, for now. After all, they were too young to date safely, and she couldn't bear to lose him if they broke up. It was better to stay friends, which offered the hope that someday, once they were properly grown up, they would either both be happy with other people and content to see each other as siblings or, just maybe, they would be able to look about at the world and the people they'd dated in the past, see they were perfect for each other, and sensibly ease themselves into a loving adult relationship. That way they could keep all the wonderful friendship they had and add to it the sort of activities that Hermione had been visualising, with much resultant dampening of knickers, since not long after a scrawny boy dragged his reluctant and complaining best mate into a bathroom to face a troll and save a bossy girl whom he barely knew.

With that in mind, Hermione tried to ignore her concerns and plunged herself into researching the House Elf-Wizard bond. Maybe she could find some way to free the poor innocent Dobbys of the world. Maybe service to the dispossessed and abused would help distract her from wondering what her best friend was up to and why he'd not tell her. After a couple of days of not being distracted, she was sitting one afternoon after classes in the Common Room, trying to read a witch's guide to household management written in Early Modern French, when matters came to a head.

"Come on, Hermione, won't you play a game of chess with me? Harry might have turned into a mad swot, but you understand there's a need for balance in life, don't you? Please?"

"Not right now, Ron. I've work to do. Look, Lavender's just finished her essay. Why don't you ask her for a game?"

"What? She's a girl."

"Ronald Bilius Weasley, in case you've somehow not noticed in the past three years, I sleep in the same dormitory as she does."

"What does that mean?"

"Oh for f... foxtrot's sake, _Ronald_ , I'm a girl as well."

"Oh, right. But you're different, Hermione. You're not a _girl_ type of girl."

Somewhere in the back of her mind Hermione realised that whatever tiny lingering doubts she might have had as to which "best mate" would make a worthy boyfriend were settled for good. But that was for later. As for the present, she counted to ten, slowly. She was not going to conjure herself a rusty soup spoon and use it to gut Ron Weasley, because she imagined Ron lying in the hospital wing having his intestines regrown would make Harry unhappy. And speaking of Harry, it was high time Hermione checked up on him. "Here, I'll ask her for you. Lavender? You play chess, don't you? Have you and Ron ever played each other before?"

Lavender giggled and batted her eyelids. "Oh, I do play a little bit of chess with my daddy and my uncles, once in a while. Would you like to play a game with me, Ron?"

Ron blushed and muttered something.

"He'd love to," Hermione said. "Here, you can have my seat, Lavender. Have fun!" She left the two of them setting up their pieces--"Don't the two little horsies go here and here, Ronnie?"--and headed out of the Common Room. It was time to get some answers from Harry Potter.

She caught him in an empty classroom. He had a good dozen sheets of parchment spread out on a desk, which he gathered up into a stack and turned upside down as soon as she stepped inside and said sweetly "Harry? Might I have a word with you, please?"

"Of course, Hermione. What do you need?"

“I need...” And for a moment she was gripped with the absurd vision of herself pulling him into a kiss, a long, long kiss such as she'd only read about in books or imagined for herself after lights out with her bedcurtains firmly drawn and a silencing charm applied. But that couldn't be. “...some answers. What are you up to, Harry?”

“Err... nothing. Just a bit of a project, that's all.”

“I'm sorry, Harry. I shouldn't be so, well, paranoid. It's just that I l... I'm worried for you, Harry. You don't usually hide things from me, and I'm concerned that you might be... well, that somebody might be forcing you to do something.”

“Oh, Hermione.” And before she knew what she was doing, she'd hugged him. “I promise you that it's nothing bad. I... I'm sorry for making you worry. We've been keeping it secret from you because, well, it's... we're planning a birthday party for you.”

She almost lost control in that moment. She didn't know if she wanted to kiss him, to throw him to the floor and ravish him, or to admonish him for wasting so much time on something as unimportant as her own birthday. At last, she said the only thing she could think of. “We, Harry?”

“Yes. Me, your friends from the study group, and... a couple of the House Elves.”

“Harry, that's very nice of you, and I understand that you and Millie and Susan and Ginny and Luna all mean well, but I don't want to celebrate my birthday by participating in slavery. It's bad enough that I can't eat a normal meal here without it being made by the poor Elves, but--” A loud popping sound startled both of them, breaking the flow of Hermione's words. There was now a small bat-eared person standing on the desk, dressed in the most unlikely ensemble Hermione had ever even imagined: a toddler-sized black leather motorcyclist's jacket with mirror-bright metal fittings, miniature British Army battledress trousers, purple and orange socks, and several knitted hats.

“Miss Herminey is having some very goods intentionses, but she is being very rude to Elveses and even more very rude to the Great Sir Harry Potter who is loving her very much.”

“Dobby, I... it's not your fault that your people have been brainwashed for centuries into thinking they only exist to serve Wizards.”

“Miss Herminey is not understanding at all. Miss Herminey is not being brainwashed into thinking it would be being nice to sometimes be in the Great Sir Harry Potter's bed with her cute girly friends and Miss Herminey and the other girlses wearing no things at all but interestings metal jeweleries and maybe sometimes cats' eareses and-slash-or creatives tyings of ropes, is she? If anything, she is almost being brainwashed into thinking this is _not_ being nice and good and a great deal of fun for all participants, but she is resisting against nasty contentions of certains unpleasants feminists theorists whoeses writings she is encountering at such a young age as to almost be giving her some sort of psychological complexey thing.”

Hermione blushed. “How did you... never mind. Dobby, there's a huge difference between genuine chattel slavery and loving consensual kink with a safety word.”

“And there is also being huges differences between genuine slavery of chattelses and how House Elves is living when being members of good families which is not behaving like nasty bad former Malfoy masters. Miss Herminey is reading many books, but she is not reading the rights ones. If Miss Herminey will bereading Stoddard and Butler perhaps she will be better understanding, as Dobby is thinking theirs is being the best book. Stockhouse Lovegood's _Introduction to the History of the_ _Elvish_ _Races_ is being more detailed, but is also being four timeses as long, and Dobby is thinking Miss Herminey is being better off with the quickest overview right now.” Dobby handed her a slim paperback, barely more than a pamphlet. The title page read: “ _On the Nature of House Elves and Wizards: an account from both sides._ By J.P.P. Stoddard, Wizard, and Augustius F. Butler, House Elf.”

She'd never imagined that House Elves read books, let alone that they might write them. Her emotions were a tangle of confusion, surprise, and delight at having discovered not only a new book but an entire new field of inquiry. Were there other books by House Elves? Could she find them and read them?

She sat down to read. Harry and Dobby began to discuss party preparations, something to do with butterbeer and whether it was better to buy it in bottles or kegs. At first she had to tune out their voices by an effort of will, but after a dozen pages she was genuinely caught up in the story of how the vast majority of the Elvish servant caste had been abandoned by their High Elf masters in the Fifth Century AD when the latter, finding humans distasteful, increasingly powerful, and all too prolific, abandoned the Earth and retreated into the alternate plane called Underhill.

Her first thought was that the Low Elves were better off on their own, until she understood two things. Unlike human magic users and the vanished High Elves, they were unable to extract magical power from the fabric of the universe, and as magical creatures they were unable to reproduce or even to live for very long without that power. They were dependent for their survival on the ambient "digested" magic emanating from their lords and ladies, part of a symbiotic system dating back millions of years. In fact, there was considerable evidence that Elvish society during the Miocene epoch had already settled into the same general structure ascribed to them in all human records, from the earliest known descriptions impressed on clay tablets or brushed on papyrus by temple and palace wizards up to the parchment and vellum manuscripts written by magical clerics and scholars in the era of their final retreat.

The abandoned Low Elves turned to their former masters' enemies for aid, but not even Merlin himself could find any means of restoring the ability to metabolise raw magic which had been bred out of their kind before chimpanzees and hominids fully diverged from each other. With their backs against the wall, the Low Elves developed a method of binding themselves to Wizards and Witches in place of the High Elves, which all but a few found preferable to the painful wasting death that awaited them without such a bond.

The Wizarding families who accepted the Elves' service had established elaborate codes of conduct to make sure that their descendants would never take their House Elves for granted and adopt the casual cruelty that had characterised the High Elves after their fall into decadence, which had begun around the time when humans were first learning to lure game with crude sympathetic magic and make fire by rubbing sticks together. Although a few old houses, such as the primary Black line, had abandoned those traditions, and some newer families, such as the Malfoys, had tricked Elves into their service with no intention of doing right by them, those abusers avoided prosecution only because political infighting had paralysed the Wizengamot for most of the twentieth century.In the vast majority of cases, the Elf-human relationship was affectionate and beneficial to both parties.

Having finished the book, Hermione closed it and looked up. Harry and Dobby had got done with butterbeer and were discussing decorative flowers. Or they might have been trading gardening tricks—Hermione didn't know enough about plants to say for sure. She cleared her throat. “Um, excuse me. I just wanted to say that I'm sorry I didn't ask you first, Dobby. I certainly don't want to see any of the Elves at Hogwarts starve to death, and I'm glad I couldn't actually free them by giving them clothes, since I'm not the Headmaster. Thank you for setting me straight. And Harry? The only present I really want is this: would you please bond Dobby properly to the House of Potter?”

“Of course I will, Hermione. If that's what you'd like, Dobby?”

“Dobby is being thinking of himself as being a Potter Elf ever since the Great Sir Harry Potter is freeing him, and is being very happy to be making this official. And of course Dobby is being forgiving you, Miss Herminey, as you is always only meaning well. And could Dobby be asking a favour? Would Miss Herminey please be considering bonding Dobby's very bestest and dearest friend Winky?”

“I... I'd be honoured to. But wouldn't you rather be, err... part of the same family?”

“As Elves is seeing it, Dobby of Potter and Winky of Granger is beings part of same family in everything but name, and names is coming very soon.”

Hermione was at a loss for words. She wasn't used to the feeling. But, much to her surprise, she found that her body knew exactly what needed to be said, and had a means of saying it that didn't require any words at all. She threw her arms about Harry and hugged him as hard as she could, burying her face in his shoulder. He held her just as tightly. "Thank you, Harry," she murmured when she was able. "Thank you so much."

"It's the least you deserve, Hermione. Thank you. I hope you don't mind having the surprise of tomorrow a bit spoilt."

"Oh, Harry, of course I don't. And I'll try my best to pretend I wasn't expecting a party. I'm sure whatever you and the girls and our Elf friends put together will be wonderful beyond my imaginings, so it won't be hard." She raised her head up from his shoulder so she could look him in the eye, but she wasn't about to let go of him. He didn't seem to want to let go of her, either.

"Oh, Hermione, thank you. I do have to say I was surprised to find out about your study group. They're very nice, and I'm glad I've finally met them properly."

"Even Millicent? I was worried you might not like that I had a Slytherin friend."

"I could never have a problem with somebody who was as good a friend to you as she is. Besides, she's a very likeable person. And the only thing I'd ever really had against her was that headlock she put you in during Lockhart's fiasco. Since you've forgiven her, how could I not?"

"Oh, right, that." Hermione could feel her face heating up. "The thing is... we'd agreed that if we got paired up we'd pretend to fight, so that Ron wouldn't get on my case and Malfoy wouldn't get on hers. We probably should've choreographed it better. I was meant to flip her on her back after the headlock and pin her, but we got stopped before I could get us into a position where I could do it safely. We'd practised the flip, of course, but we'd not done the whole fight scene enough times, and we took far too long. Millie was very disappointed."

"Oh?"

"Yes. She had a bit of a pash for Parkinson, and she was hoping to get some comforting for being brutalised Muggle-style. And then Parkinson was too worried about her Drakey-poo being threatened with the allegedly venomous snake the idiot himself had conjured to even ask if Millie was all right."

"Really?"

"Yes. The only good thing to come out of it all was _that_ particular little ship being sunk. I knew Pugface wasn't good enough for Millie, any more than any of those clods that pass for Slytherin boys are. Well, I suppose Zabini is all right, but he's got a betrothed in France whom he adores to the point he'll not even look at another girl, one of those arranged things that actually worked out, sort of like Neville and Hannah. Millie says he's been trying to transfer to Beauxbatons ever since First Year, but his mother won't let him, because Hogwarts was his father's school."

"Oh. Ron said he thought Zabini was a... that is, that he preferred the company of other blokes."

"Thank you for being so thoughtful of my feelings and sensibilities, Harry, but that sounds a bit too diplomatic for Ron."

Harry blushed charmingly, and it was all Hermione could do not to kiss him on the spot. "I think he actually said 'iron hoof' and 'queer as a quidditch racquet,' to be honest. You know what he's like."

"I might have noticed once or twice... a day." She laughed, and Harry laughed with her. Afterwards, there was a sweet silence as the two best and dearest friends stood together in each others' arms.

Dobby coughed politely. "Please to be excusing Dobby, but it is being nearly time for dinner in the Great Hall, and Master Harry and Mist'ess Herminey is being needing their food. Or would they rather Dobby be bringing them something here?"

"It's up to you, Hermione."

"I suppose we'd better go. I tricked Ron into playing chess with Lavender, and I must confess I'm curious to see what happened."

"Lavender? Chess? Ron?"

"Yes. I got tired of him trying to get me to play with him, so I thought I might as well give somebody who actually wants to spend more time with him an opportunity to get to know him better."

"You... you don't?"

Hermione didn't know which thing she felt more like doing: laughing until her sides ached or kissing Harry until their lips went sore. "No, Harry. I know Ronald Bilius Weasley as well as I need to know him. He's my friend, and I care about him, but my feelings for him are much the same as Ginny's. Well, except for the fact that she's never entirely forgiven him for throwing her teddy in the pond when she was six; after all, he never had the opportunity to do that to me."

"Really?"

"Yes. The twins got Ginny's teddy back for her, and she used accidental magic to turn Ron's snot into a flock of bats that chased him round and round the Burrow for half an hour, but he never really apologised to her."

"So... you're not interested in Ron?"

"No, Harry. People might say we fight like an old married couple, but any couple who treated each other that way would divorce before their first fortnight of married life. Not that you should feel badly for thinking I might be--Mrs. Weasley actually had a talk with me about it, and my Mum did as well."

"Thank you, Hermione."

"For what?"

"For... Oh, for being you."

"Thank you for being you, Harry." They looked each other in the eye for a long moment. And then, very slowly, they moved their faces forward until their lips were meeting, and they kissed.

The contents of the room didn't swirl into the air as if a tiny tornado had been generated around them. They didn't glow brightly enough to make Muggles as far away as Inverness think an atomic bomb had gone off in a not particularly interesting bit of ruins beside an altogether dull loch in a patch of unpeopled Highland territory that was entirely unworthy of their attention. They didn't fall into a coma and find themselves reliving each others' entire lives. But it was a very nice, sweet, perfect first kiss. When they broke it, they looked into each others' eyes for another moment before moving in to kiss again.

Not long after, Dobby coughed. "Please be pardoning Dobby, Master Harry and Mist'ess Herminey. Dobby is being very happy that Master and Mist'ess is getting sense and doing the kissing they has beens wantings to do since they is being ickle Firsties, but it is being not long before dinner is being served and if Mist'ess is wanting to see what has been happenings with Ronald the Wheezy and Lavender the Brown she will be wanting to be in the Great Hall."

"Thanks, Dobby," Harry said. "So, shall we proceed, my lady? That is, if you want to..."

"Be your lady? After a kiss like that? How could I not? There's just one thing. Dobby? Is there anything else Harry must do to bond you to him?"

"No, Mist'ess. Saying is being enough. After all, Dobby is thinking of self as being Master Harry's Elf since Master Harry is tricking bad former master Lucy Bad Faith into freeing Dobby."

Hermione had never imagined it would sound so nice to be called Mistress. Well, at least that it would sound so nice to be called Mistress by a House Elf. She had to confess, at least in the privacy of her own thoughts, that she'd had a passing fantasy or five about playing Pirate Queen and Her Cuddly Captives or Sultana Shares Her Husband's Harem with the girls from her study group. _Ginny has a sweet rump and a sweeter personality, Luna is so charming and playful, Susan is delightfully ticklish, and_ _Millie and I did have an_ _awfully_ _good time_ _working out that fight scene, especially the part where I pinned her, and I suppose it_ was _rather funny how many times she wanted to go over that part again. And they all do seem very taken with Harry..._

But that line of speculation was neither here nor there right now. Hermione wondered if in Dobby's view of things she and Harry were already married, or at least betrothed. _It seems a bit sudden, but, surprisingly, I don't mind in the least. Maybe it's because on some level Harry and I have been dating since First Year?_ "Thank you, Dobby. Should I go ahead and talk to Winky now, or would I do better to wait until she's not busy?"

"Mist'ess Herminey is being most kindest! Winky is... well, Dobby is thinking it best right now to be bonding, if Mist'ess Herminey would. They wills not be taking long. Will Dobby be collecting Winky for Mist'ess?"

"Please do, Dobby."

Moments later, Dobby was back, with his arm round a small bleary-eyed female elf. She wore a skirt and blouse and a little blue hat, but unlike Dobby's clothes hers were battered and stained as if they'd been used to wipe up thirty years' worth of grime from the kitchen of a greasy spoon whose owners had always preferred bribing the health inspectors to meeting standards.

"Winky? Dobby's explained things to me. I'm sorry I didn't understand what House Elves need to live. Will you bond with me?"

Winky blinked and struggled to focus her eyes. "Missy Herminey is not being playing sadistic gameses? Missy Herminey will not be bonding Winky and then giving Winky clotheses?"

"I would wish for my Elf to be neatly and comfortably dressed in the manner she finds most appropriate and which best reflects on the House of Granger and the honour with which that House regards its Elvish members, and if she needs to buy garments I will pay for them, since she is a member of my family, but I will never throw my Elf out to starve."

"Then Winky is accepting."

"If Mist'ess will be saying she accepts the bond?" Dobby prompted.

"I accept Winky as my Elf." A day prior, Hermione would have said she'd kiss Professor Snape before she owned a House Elf. But now bonding with Winky seemed as natural as kissing Harry. Then again, a day prior Hermione hadn't expected she'd kiss Harry before they left school, if she ever did at all. She felt a rather pleasant little sensation in her magic, something like a kitten rubbing against her foot. Winky might be drawing power from her mistress, but Hermione felt more as if she herself had gained an additional boost of magical energy.

Winky stood up straight, although she kept her hand on Dobby's arm. The redness left her eyes, and she appeared to grow a good four inches and gain nearly a stone in weight. When Dobby popped her into the room Winky had barely come up to his shoulder, but now she was only a finger or two shorter; Hermione realised that her Elf was in much the same proportion to Dobby as she herself was to Harry. Winky's clothes seemed to blur for an instant, and then she was wearing something like a feminine version of Dobby's outfit: an immaculately clean ensemble of brown leather bomber jacket and khaki skirt covered in pockets, with Dobby's stack of knitted hats split between the two Elves. "Winky is thanking you, Mist'ess Herminey, and thanking Master Harry. And Winky is also thanking Dobby, and Winky is thinking to be doing more thanking of Dobby when tonight's works is being dones."

"If Winky is being willing, Dobby is being available." Hermione had never imagined she'd see a House Elf blush.

"Winky is much more than being willing. In fact, if Mist'ess Herminey is not needing Winky for the next hour or two...?"

"Not at all, Winky. Enjoy yourself."

"And I'll be fine, Dobby. Have fun." Harry offered Hermione his arm. "Shall we give our new family members some privacy and make our way to the Great Hall, my lady?"

She took it. "I'd like nothing better."

When they got to the Gryffindor table, Ron and Lavender were sitting next to each other, caught up in an animated discussion and mostly ignoring their plates. "I still can't believe you tricked me like that! 'Little horsies,' for shame!"

"You're only saying that cos I beat you, Ron-Ron."

"You only beat me cos I was going easy on you. You fooled me into thinking you were a beginner, you... you... you _chess sharper_."

"Well, now you know, and knowing is... at least some of the battle. Would you play me another game tonight?"

"You'd better believe I will, Lav-Lav."

Harry turned to Hermione, raising an eyebrow. "Did you know?"

"That Lavender was that sneaky? I had my suspicions. That she was good enough at chess to wipe the board with Ron? I didn't, but I did think it was sort of odd that in three years and nearly three weeks of her and Parvati playing chess in our dorm almost every night she'd never asked him for a game."

Ginny slipped up beside them and laid a hand on Hermione's arm. "Looks like a match made in heaven. Well played, Hermione."

"Oh? I only wanted Ron to stop bothering me to play with him."

"Well, I think you've got yourself and Harry a respite. And it looks as if you might be using up some of that time together, am I right, O fearless leader of our study group?"

"Well... yes."

Ginny grinned. "Congratulations, you two. It's about time."

"Yes," Luna said. Hermione didn't know how the little Ravenclaw had managed to get so close without her noticing, but Luna did have a talent for sneaking about like a tiny cute blonde ninja. "Congratulations, Hermione and Harry. Isn't it nice of Ron and Lavender to distract everybody so that the two of you can have a pleasant dinner in peace?"

"Err... I suppose you're right, Luna. Oh, and thank you, both of you."

Harry smiled. "Yes. Thank you, Luna and Ginny."

"Thank you, Harry. Our Hermione looks most delightfully happy, and your auras are making some absolutely splendid patterns and colours right now. You've always looked lovely together, but now you look even lovelier."

Hermione looked at Harry. He didn't seem to have any better ideas of what to say than she had, but he looked almost deliriously happy. Then again, she felt almost deliriously happy herself. They sat down at the Gryffindor table, side by side, with Luna and Ginny opposite them. It was a very pleasant meal, one of the best she'd ever had at Hogwarts, although she knew intellectually that it was the company of her best and now boyfriend and two of her closest female friends that made it so.

Then again, it didn't hurt that his new connection with Lavender had somehow improved Ron's table manners. Apparently he actually was capable of chewing and swallowing before speaking. _Illustrating chess problems on the table with salt and pepper shakers, bread rolls, and bits of cheese, now, that's a little odd, but if it makes them happy_ _I can accept it. As long as Lavender doesn't try to take the tomato_ _from my salad to use as a rook again..._

When the meal was done, Hermione and Harry went walking out in the courtyard with Ginny and Luna. "If you'll come this way," Ginny said, "you might see something interesting."

When they were in the shadows between a pair of torches and safe from prying eyes, Millicent and Susan made their presence known. "Congratulations, Harry and Hermione," Susan said. "Considering you've been dating since First Year, it's about time you actually realised it."

"Yes. Congratulations. And how do you like our early birthday present, Hermione?" It was the first time Hermione had ever heard Millicent giggle outside the confines of their hidden study room in the library or the empty classroom where they'd practised for their Second Year mock duel.

"I feel as if I should make a joke about trying him out before I decide if I'll keep him, but I can't, because I know I will. Thank you so much for a plan that only a Slytherin, a Hufflepuff, a Ravenclaw, and a Gryffindor could possibly have put together."

Susan giggled. "Actually, it took two Gryffindors. Just because Harry didn't _entirely_ realise he himself was the present doesn't mean he didn't play a vital role in putting the whole operation intoeffect."

"I'll gladly hand over my credit to Hermione's and my Elves, whose names I will not say in case it might distract them from their fun."

"Good plan," Hermione said, and embraced him. "I'm tempted to kiss you, if not outright snog you, but I don't know if we're ready for that sort of display in front of our friends just yet. Maybe we should save it for tomorrow?"

"It might be nice if you did," Luna said. "I have it on reliable authority that Professor McGonagall has put at least a couple of Galleons on the two of you being seen kissing in public for the first time on our Hermione's fifteenth birthday."

"What?" Harry said. "Who's giving odds on us?"

"The Weasley twins, of course," Susan said. "The Hufflepuff bookmakers only take bets on winged horse races, foreign elections, and the Quidditch League."

Millicent laughed."And we Slytherins and the Ravenclaws haven't got any bookmakers, cos there's no good reason to trust folk in the houses of the sometimes overly ambitious and the sometimes too quick too show off their own cleverness when there are strictly honest neutrals who'll do a better job of it.In any case, Susan and I went to the Twins, cos we reckoned it made sense to put our money where McGonagall put hers."

"Well, it does seem like the least we can do, doesn't it, Harry?"

"If you don't mind being kissed at your birthday party, then, Hermione?"

"Of course not. After all, there's no reason why we couldn't get in a bit of private practise first. Is there?"

"I don't think so."

"I _do_ wish the four of us could watch," Luna murmured, "but it's not worth risking the invalidation of the bet. I'd like to think we don't count as 'public,' but sometimes it doesn't do to take chances. The Twins gave very attractive odds on tomorrow, and aside from wanting my friends' wagers to succeed I rather like the idea of winning myself enough money to buy that complete set of Stanley Trismegistus novels I've had my eye on."

Millicent sighed. "I reckon you're right, my dear Luna. But... may we hug you, Harry and Hermione? Please?"

Hermione hugged her boyfriend close and whispered in his ear. "Would you mind?"

"Not in the slightest," he whispered back. "Would you?"

"Never." A little louder, she said "Of course you may."

Being caught in a Millicent-Susan-Ginny-Luna embrace was always nice. Being caught in a Millicent-Susan-Ginny-Luna embrace with Harry in her arms was incredible, and Hermione was most definitely looking forward to the next time.

It was already the best birthday of her life, and the day itself hadn't even dawned.

Needless to say, her party was a delight and Hermione had no trouble at all pretending to be surprised by the whole thing. After all, she hadn't had any idea that Dobby and Winky knew how to find her favourite bakery at home in Oxford and order a personalised cake from them, or that the Elves would consult with Parvati, Padma, and the Patil family House Elves in order to make a feast worthy of the best Indian restaurant she and her parents had ever eaten in. Those were complete surprises, as was the special Wizarding edition of Tolkien's _Silmarillion_ that Harry had found for her.

For that matter, she was surprised to discover that she didn't feel even the slightest bit embarrassed when it came time for her and Harry to kiss. It might have helped that Ron didn't make any stupid remarks, being far too distracted with Lavender and her unique solution to the Knight's Tour, but the most important thing was that she was kissing Harry Potter, he was kissing her, and they had three years and almost three weeks' worth of kissing to make up.

In short, life was good for Hermione Granger, and it only got better when, a few years later, she became Hermione Potter.


End file.
